When life gives you Lemonheads
The bass player looks way nervous, darting anxious looks over at singer Evan Dando, who keeps whipping around backwards to instruct the drummer mid-song, mumbling some new count-off adjustment. His greasy tresses in full flight, the Lemonheads singer/songwriter looks a little ADHD, my wife comments, as he launches into My Drug Buddy, with its exquisite singalong chorus, “I’m too much with myself, I wanna be someone else.”
The Lemonheads came to Manila, brought in by Pinoytuner to Whitespace on Pasong Tamo Ext., and it was like a page ripped out of the early ‘90s and faxed into the future of iPad cameras and waving cellphones.
Along with the Pixies’ “Doolittle,” the Lemonheads’ “It’s a Shame About Ray” was probably the ultimate blueprint album for ‘90s power punk. Like 1989’s “Doolittle,” it’s the kind of album that everyone bobs their heads to when the catchy choruses kick in. But Dando, willing to lean heavily on that album, came to show they’re not the Mrs. Robinson band (of course they didn’t perform that song); they’re still the punked-up Boston band that slithered out of Taang! Records back in the late ‘80s. His Gibson cranked up to “Stun,” a stack of Marshall amps behind him indicating we were about to lose our upper registers to brainscraping loudness, Dando went back to basics and took his songs for a ride, tearing it up in the process. You know what they say, when life gives you Lemonheads…
That doesn’t mean there weren’t cover versions sprinkling the band’s 75-minute set. Dando, tall and stooping, the way certain tall persons are, replaced his Gibson with an acoustic several times during the night, gamely calling out for requests. Luka was one of them, the Suzanne Vega song that found its way to the first Lemonheads album, “Lick.” He also offered up Different Drum, the Mike Newsmith-penned tune first made popular by Linda Ronstadt in the Stone Poneys. (Our persistent calls for Frank Mills from the rock musical Hair, or a cover of Gram Parsons’ Brass Buttons went unheeded.)
Total fans Ciudad, Itchyworms and Ang Bandang Shirley opened for Lemonheads, and it was fitting because their songs seem as though sprung from the same launchpad of “It’s a Shame…”, though hurtled into brand-new directions of Pinoy pop greatness. (Mikey Amistoso even named his side band Hannah + Gabi after a Lemonheads song, duh!)
The band on this night was, well, a new, retooled version of Lemonheads. The sound system made it impossible to decipher Dando’s early introduction of band members (according to Jason Caballa, it was Todd Philips on drums, Chris Brokaw on rhythm guitar and someone named Farley on bass) or indeed anything else he had to say to the audience. There was an early problem during the singer’s acoustic bit where he leaned his head away from the microphone while singing, then indicated that he “couldn’t hear anything” from the left stage monitor. This may have been an omen of things to come.
From early days in the Boston scene to huge success with “It’s a Shame About Ray,” through People magazine “Most Beautiful People” lists to admitted drug vacations, Dando still stands tall, if a little stooping. Someone — perhaps Ryan Adams — coaxed him out of semi-retirement and the band is now working on a new “punked-up” album, we hear. For the meanwhile, the crowd at Whitespace got what they probably came to hear: rousing, loud, tore-up versions of Confetti, Rudderless, Alison’s Starting to Happen, Hannah & Gabi, Kitchen, stuff from the follow-up album, “Come On Feel The Lemonheads,” plus tracks from 2006’s overlooked self-titled “Lemonheads” and the band’s last album of cover songs, “Varshons.”
Actually, it’s hard to consider the Lemonheads as a proper “band” these days, relying mostly on an ad hoc assortment of musicians and friends. The songs of Dando still stand strong, though, and his voice — a low, reedy croon — for the most part held up well through the night. He’s justified in having said, at one point, “I have a damn good voice.” On a good night, to his credit, he can tackle Townes Van Zandt numbers as well as Christina Aguilera.
Dando, dressed in a denim vest with cutoff sleeves, could strike the average viewer as a hippie burnout, with his wildly flipping hair and lousy posture. But though the after-set music was Strawberry Fields Forever, there’s no evidence that Dando wasn’t in possession of his full faculties this evening. There was the sight of the guitarist frantically clamping his capo up and down the neck between numbers, and his tricky instructions to the drummer, who must have been as nervous as the bass player. Perhaps Dando still likes to play it on the edge, where the music is a little more raucous, but decidedly more honest.
The night ended on a strange note, however, as the crowd stood around for the (much-needed) encore, which was preceded by Dando sporting an acoustic again for another solo bit. He launched into one number, before making that head-tilting gesture again, perhaps indicating he couldn’t hear himself properly through the monitors. A few out-of-tune notes later into the song, a pocket of laughter erupted from somewhere in the crowd — and within seconds, the acoustic was off his neck, Dando said goodnight to the crowd and, like a ship without a rudder, left the stage. It’s a shame, actually.
